This application is related, generally and in various embodiments, to an apparatus, systems and methods for backing-up information.
For a variety of reasons, it is prudent for many entities to maintain an accessible duplicate copy of important data. One method of maintaining an accessible duplicate copy of important data is to periodically backup the data to another storage device. Although this is a common practice for many entities, the periodic nature of the backup process exposes the entity to a loss of data if a failure occurs between backup operations.
Another method of maintaining an accessible duplicate copy of data is to employ mirroring—a fault tolerance method in which a backup storage device maintains data identical to that on the primary storage device and can serve to replace the primary if the primary fails. Although this method offers a more current duplicate copy than that provided by the periodic backup method, mirroring is typically associated with a performance degradation of approximately 50% for a write operation.
Another method of maintaining an accessible duplicate copy of data is to write data to a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) such that if a disk drive fails, the data is not lost. In its most elementary form, RAID mirrors data to two disk drives having a common disk geometry. Thus, if one disk drive fails, the data can be accessed from the other disk drive. For more complex implementations, RAID writes data across a plurality of disk drives having a common disk geometry such that if one or more disk drives fail, the data can still be accessed from the remaining disk drives.
Although the above-described methods provide the ability to backup important data, the methods do not necessarily address a common problem experienced by personnel who work at more than one location. For such personnel, a common problem is the inability to easily copy data from a storage device at a first location, subsequently load the information to another storage device at a second location, then access the data at the second location. A lack of common disk geometry, a lack of portability, and a lack of compatible access protocols can all contribute to this problem.